Meet the most ungrateful financial institution in America...

re:

by Thom Hartmann A...

Jan. 8, 2013 8:25 am

A.I.G.

As the New York Times reports – the insurance giant would have brought down the entire financial system in 2008 -- had it not been for a generous 182 billion bailout courtesy of “we the taxpayers” -- is now looking to sue “we the taxpayers” for offering up a bailout in the first place. Leading up the financial crisis in 2007 and 2008, AIG made enormous profits insuring junk mortgages for other banks and financial institutions. And when those junk mortgages finally exploded – and everyone came to A.I.G. to collect on their insurance claims – A.I.G. didn’t have the money – and had to be bailed out.

Now – A.I.G. is arguing that the conditions of the bailout were too onerous – and deprived company shareholders tens of billions of dollars. According to A.I.G. – that’s a violation of the 5th Amendment, which bans the confiscation of private property without just compensation. So here we have a business that would have failed had it not received a bailout – now suing the government saying the bailout was too burdensome.

You can’t make this stuff up, folks. And it shows just how entitled Wall Street feels nowadays to our money.